I didn’t fail, but I came pretty fucking close….

I was supposed to run 5 miles on Saturday.

I didn’t.

I seriously failed to plan.

With less than a week left in DC, my temp agency called and asked if I wanted to work a few days at a conference. I’m in desperate need of money with no real plans to obtain a regular source of funds, so of course I said yes. I was scheduled to work 4 hours on Friday, 10 hours on Saturday, 6 hours on Sunday, and 10 hours on Monday. It was a pretty sweet deal because now I’ll be able to afford my marathon entrance fee AND my chemistry book.

So I knew a day or so beforehand that I would need to do a long run AND work 10 hours on Saturday. I knew that at some point in that 10-hour day I would get hungry. I slept in, not only missing my time to run but also forgetting to pack a nutritious lunch.

At the convention, the only option was a Starbucks. I had a frappuccino for breakfast, a brownie for lunch, and a cup of black coffee in the afternoon. I got home, feeling fatigued and ravenous, so I inhaled 4 pieces of leftover pizza and half a beer as soon as I got home. I was too full and bloated to go running.

I had to get up at 4am the next morning to “make up” my missed run, as well as run that day’s regularly scheduled run in the evening.

I completed the week on schedule, but I’m incredibly concerned that I folded the first time I was even remotely challenged. It bothers me even more that this all happened within my first week of training.

Tomorrow I will be getting on a plane to California, and I will be beginning a master’s program in nutrition and personal training. I will be training for a marathon. I will be studying food science.

Fitness is my job now. There’s really no reason to blow off my workouts or stop by the minimart for a donut. As soon as I step off the plane tomorrow, this is my job.

I went on my scheduled 4-mile run tonight and I was amazed. I floated through, kept my pace, and experienced no pain. I look forward to many, many more runs like this.